The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday, April 20, 2026, granting Nigerian banks real-time access to telecom data. The formal agreement, signed in FCT, is part of the central bank's move aimed at tackling SIM swap–related fraud in the country’s digital payments system.
This is not the first time the apex bank has taken steps to curb financial fraud. In March, the CBN restricted changes to Bank Verification Number (BVN) phone numbers to a one-time update, a measure introduced to also reduce identity-related fraud and enhance consumer protection in the digital platform landscape.
However, this new CBN–NCC agreement has birthed a data-sharing portal called the Telecom Identity Risk Management System (TIRMS), a system that'll enable financial institutions to verify whether a mobile number tied to a transaction has recently been swapped, reassigned, marked for suspicious activity, or become inactive before the payment is processed.
The CBN–NCC initiative is aimed at curbing rising electronic fraud, especially SIM-related fraud, one of the most exploited gaps in the country’s digital payments system, which will help strengthen consumer protection in the sense that reduces the amount of account hijacks. Banks can now instantly verify if a phone number used for transactions has recently been changed (swapped) or reassigned using the TIRMS portal before authorising transactions.
According to Nigerian Interbank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), the identity layer in Nigeria’s financial fraud landscape declined by 51% to ₦25.85 billion ($18.7 million) in 2025. However, many accounts are still being hijacked through authentication bypasses caused by SIM swaps or compromised phone numbers. These incidents often result in financial losses and a significant erosion of customer trust.
Notably, these telecom systems' vulnerabilities—including SIM swaps, reassigned numbers, and compromised mobile identities—are some of the most exploited vulnerabilities in the country’s digital payments system, and until now, there has been no reliable way for banks to verify the real-time status of a mobile identity.
Despite banks deploying increasingly sophisticated tools to detect and prevent fraudulent activity, financial losses continue to rise sharply. According to NIBSS, in its Annual Fraud Report, financial losses surged from ₦17.67 billion ($12.80 million) in 2023 to ₦52.26 billion ($37.86 million) in 2024—a sharp rise that has turned fraud prevention into a high-stakes arms race for financial institutions in Nigeria.
This is not the first time the CBN and NCC have partnered to strengthen digital payment systems in Nigeria. In 2017, both regulators introduced regulations that curb SIM swap and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) e-payment frauds. In addition to that, their coordinated action in June 2025 brought an end to the prolonged USSD debt standoff between banks and telecom operators, helping to restore stability to the service.
So, it’ll be more accurate to describe the relationship between the regulators as an evolving collaboration over time rather than a fixed number of isolated partnerships. The new agreement stands out because it’s the most structured and integrated effort so far, especially with real-time data sharing and joint infrastructure.
The regulators emphasised that the growing scale and sophistication of today’s digital economy needs to be addressed with a more structured and lasting framework. “Across Nigeria, citizens and businesses depend on digital channels to save, pay, and trade,” Olayemi Cardoso, CBN governor, said. “Those channels depend on resilient telecommunications networks, trusted identity systems, and secure data flows.”
However, tackling SIM swap and payment fraud is not the only agreement the MoU consists of. It also focuses on QR-based transactions, instant payment systems, and open banking standards, with the aim of ensuring that telecom and financial infrastructures can scale reliably. The agreement also sets out processes for the faster and seamless resolution of cross-sector issues like failed airtime purchases and transaction errors.
In other words, the MoU commits both regulators to oversee payment systems, consumer protection, and telecom identity risk management. Both regulators will also work together on public awareness initiatives and strengthen systems for handling consumer complaints.
